Dozens of faithful parishioners of St. Peter’s Roman Catholic Church in Liberty, Sullivan County, took part in a special rosary prayer in honor of Our Lady of Guadalupe – the start of a five-month preparation for the Guadalupe feast day, December 12. The gathering in the church, held in Spanish, occurred in the late afternoon Sunday, July 16.  

The parish had planned originally to hold a rosary procession from LaPolt Park, along North Main Street to the church, but due to poor weather, organizers replaced the street procession with a recitation of the rosary inside the church. The event was sponsored by the parish Hispanic Committee. 

“The procession is a new activity for the tradition, here in Liberty; this took place for two years prior to Covid, and is now being revived,” Jair Molina-Gavilan, community liaison and seminarian assigned to St. Peter’s, told The Good Newsroom. “Every Sunday evening, Our Lady of Guadalupe will be honored in a different family’s home until December.”          

“The (Guadalupe) statue is placed on an altar in the home where it remains for a week until it is moved to the next home; the people gather for the rosary and singing,” and then share a meal — break bread in social fellowship in the home, Molina-Gavilan said.

“Our Lady of Guadalupe is the Star of Hope,” he added. “The Hispanic population here is mostly Mexicans; they have a big devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe.” He said the event statue was donated by a parishioner. 

Molina-Galivan, a Queens-born seminarian, begins his studies in September at St. Andrew’s College Seminary in South Orange, New Jersey, part of Seton Hall University. However, he remains a seminarian with the Archdiocese of New York, currently assigned to St. Peter’s Church in Liberty.  

“It is important to know more about Our Lady of Guadalupe. She is our Holy Mother. We venerate her; every time we pray the rosary, we feel motivated, we feel closer to her,” said Honduran-born Gustavo Cerritos, 50.

St. Juan Diego was canonized on July 31, 2002, at the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Mexico City, by Pope John Paul II, now St. John Paul II. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops notes that under the title of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the Virgin Mary “is the patron of Mexico, the United States, and all of the Americas, as well as the protector of unborn children. In 1531, she appeared in a vision to the peasant Juan Diego on Tepeyac Hill near Mexico City and charged him with asking the bishop to build a church on that spot. But the bishop demanded a sign, so Our Lady had Juan gather flowers in his cloak in December to take to the bishop. When Juan opened his cloak, the colorful image of Guadalupe was emblazoned on the cactus cloth. That icon is preserved in the most famous shrine in the Western Hemisphere and Our Lady of Guadalupe continues to inspire poor and oppressed people worldwide.”